Ok hi guys, I am indeed still alive, and I know that this chapter is late beyond all reason. Truth is, life got complicated all of a sudden, but the end of school is approaching! Once we hit summer I'll be writing as often as I can. Now, I was so excited to finally have a new chapter that I'm uploading hot off the press with no attempt at editing. Sorry about grammar issues! Anyone who is still out there do please review!
Chapter 21
Hiccup
The first sensations were comforting. The first thing that I noticed was the pain. It was lovely to have that tie to reality. A burning pulse that never deviated. Each thud in my chest sent fire racing through my veins. That was normal. A little farther out, around my body, I found my comforting second heartbeat, pulsing along against my rigid, hard, smooth surfaces that enveloped me, rustled and shifted as my other body breathed. I didn't think I would ever get tired of waking up here.
"Dare I even ask where we are?" The curtains of scales shuddered and rocked around me, as Toothless' laughter resonated through my spine.
"I hardly think it matters. So long as it's not Berk, or a nest full of angry dragons and their Queen." Silence.
"Their Queen?" The dragon's lungs inflated to their fullest, and released.
"The Queen, is the controller of the hive. She makes every decision for every dragon that lives there. You and I manipulate our own minds to benefit ourselves in various situations, and to communicate. The Queen, breaks minds. Separates the thoughts, and then compresses them into a meaningless ball of solid being. The thoughts of the individual are suppressed, leaving the Queen, to fill the empty shell with her own desires. She used to be a dragon of normal size for her age, about twice as big as me. Then she started to gain others. She snared passing dragons one by one, building a force to use against those enemies she hadn't found yet. She used that force to bring her food. Lots of it. It seemed that her body was uniquely equipped to handle the excess. She doesn't bother moving her own body anymore. She has a few thousand smaller bodies to do her labor for her. The entire mass moves as one, because every one of the bodies, is driven by a single mind."
Toothless' body had been tense and rigid throughout his telling. It didn't relax as he lay, silently waiting for me to respond. I took a few moments to think.
"How do you know all of this?"
The casement of wings pulled back slightly and I felt a dull snout bump against my head.
"Because. For the better part of my life, I lived as a slave, with Her constantly whispering in my mind. Until you set me free."
I felt a small prick in my chest. A sharp pain. The fire in my heart intensified and I felt my brow crease. The tide of anger was sudden, and overwhelming. The comforting darkness of Toothless' embrace, was replaced by a flickering image of an enormous head looming out of a pit. My fists clenched. But just as I was about to vent my anger against the enormous monstrosity, pressure compressed my body on all sides.
A light, moist current of air brushed against my ear. "Hiccup, calm down. It's over, and we don't have to worry about Her, or anything else."
"Let me go Toothless! I need to..."
"There is nothing you need to do."
Without my command, my body was writhing and jerking, trying to move and hit something. For more than five minutes I sat there, boiling in my own anger. Toothless showed no response to my strugglings, or my demands for freedom. It felt as though I would explode with the violent forces pent up within my body. Then, Toothless started purring. The sound was so happy, I at first was utterly confused. But then I became aware of Toothless' mind. Memories were flowing past like a river. And all of the memories involved us two. Our first, pleasant, meeting. Our first flight. The afternoons that blurred by in sunny clouds of carelessness. The fact that meeting Toothless, had destroyed every problem in my life.
The purr resonating from Toothless' chest deepened, and the shaking of my body, was overwhelmed by the vibrations running through my , my anger faded, and the relaxing rhythm of Toothless' pulsing breath left me floating.
"You know, I never thought I'd be teaching a youngling how to control their anger."
"...What?"
"It's a common problem in my kind. A youthful Shade has a fiery temper to match it's internal furnace. It is the duty of a parent to teach the youngling how to survive. Survival depends on skill, and skill is a direct result of control. You remember your first hunt?"
"So, the majority of a Shade's life is governed by their control of their own mind?"
"Exactly. There is nothing a Shade cannot do, if they have total mental discipline."
Whilst that was sinking in, the interruption came. We felt an alien consciousness slide past our mind. Toothless rolled to the side, simultaneously opening his wings. His momentum allowed him to get his feet on the ground. I used the motion of the wings to flip me belly down to land crouched on all fours with Toothless standing above me. A wall of scales pressed downwards on my back, and retreated again as Toothless drew breath, and unleashed a challenging roar.
XXX
Unknown
It was quite strange. I have observed many minds in my time, but this Shade's was different. Its defenses were as unyielding as stone, but like any other dragon, it could not hide it's mood. The glowing ball of light shimmered in my mind's eye. I had no knowledge of what it was thinking about, but I could certainly see the conflict. The mind before me seemed to be constantly at odds with itself, feeling two emotions at once. When it first awoke, it was completely happy and amused. Then it had become sad, and wistful, but it was also curious. Now it was simultaneously happy, as well as wrathful. No wait, it was amused and interested. It was as if there was a two sided conversation going on within one mind! Perhaps the dragon was mad. But to determine that, I'd have to take a closer look.
And that was my mistake. I edged in closer to try and determine what sort of creature I was dealing with. But I stretched too far. A stray thought bumped against the stranger's mind. It was the oddest thing I had ever felt. Half seemed to be that of a normal Shade, but the other half was off. Different. Alien. Of course, the moment I touched it, the Shade exploded. He rolled and pulled his wings up and out, landing on his feet with the wings spread, an imposing snarl ripping up and out of his throat. Typical male. Bellowing his discomfort to the world and simultaneously giving away his position to any and all potential enemies. But as far as I could tell, he hadn't seen me yet. The rising sun at my back was perfect cover. I would just look like part of the tree.
Below me, at the bottom of the hill, the Shade froze. Its entire body became stone, and I could barely see it draw breath. Its eyes whipped back and forth across the forest and I knew it was searching. Then, it did the strangest thing. It dipped its head and stuck it between its own fore legs and stood frozen there. The stance looked almost unnatural. It didn't move for an entire ten minutes. I had relaxed back into my tree when it exploded into motion again. The stranger tossed its head in a bestial way and went charging up the hill. Trees and bushes and all manner of plant life were decimated by the wild charge. He seemed to be running in a direction that was utterly random. There was no question. This dragon was mad. Completely insane. Perhaps I could put it out of its misery. That was when I felt the feather light touch of another mind.
I was aware of the mind of the beast raging and snorting below me, but I felt a separate touch, from a mind that seemed to be the same, and yet was also different. For a moment, I thought that the dragon had split in two. That was when I felt an impact in the center of my back.
It was so surprising that my tail straightened involuntarily and I dropped toward the ground, with some kind of weight stuck to my back. Despite my surprise I managed to pivot and land on my feet. I whipped my tail across my back, trying to get a hit on whatever creature was stuck there. Then, the weight disappeared. But I was not able to assess the location of my assailant, before another, much more powerful force smashed into my side. I was rolling. The world spun around me and before I could even bare my swing with my tail, my legs, tail, and wings were all pinned to the ground.
XXX
Toothless
It went over well. Hiccup was right, the stranger was extremely distracted. It was rather easy for me to take advantage of that. A little mild insanity is enough to catch anyone's attention. I kept her gaze riveted on me whilst Hiccup ran around to the opposite side of the hill. He managed to hit a soft spot in the spine, because the stranger dropped like a rock. The scent that wafted down the hill as it fell, caught me by surprise. This strange dragon was a female. She landed on her feet, but she had a smiling teenage viking stuck to her back. In her efforts to get him off, she had completely forgotten about me. I made a dart for the top of the hill, and planted my shoulder firmly against hers. She seemed to be about my age, but being a female, she was slightly smaller. I rolled her easily. She seemed almost frozen in surprise because I was able to pin her easily. I stared down at the stranger.
She had a fairly attractive face, sloping lines and soft ridges. Had I been searching for a mate, she might have attracted my attention. Her anger spoiled her looks though. A guttural snarl tore open her mouth and I was struck in the face by her feminine scent. And I felt the strangest compulsion, for just one moment, it seemed as though this female might be a threat to my claim on Hiccup. I opened my mouth and returned her hostilities, with three times the volume.
"Is that how Shades greet each other? By yelling in each others faces?"
"No that's not... I wasn't.. Oh nevermind!" The females face quickly became confused, and a high pitched voice resounded in my head.
"Are you mad? I think you must be. You keep talking to yourself." Now it was my turn to be confused.
"And exactly what do you mean by that?"
"You're feeling two different emotions, independently at once. Curiosity and anger. It's as though you are two separate beings."
An incredulous tinge entered my voice."How do you know what I'm feeling?"
"I think I'm the one asking the questions here."
That was amusing. "I do believe that YOU are the one who's pinned."
The female's face now shifted to one of discomfort. She wriggled from side to side, trying to shift any one of her limbs. Then another voice piped up in my head.
"You know, she's kinda pretty."
"What? Shut up you. She was sneaking around and spying on us!"
"How do you know she was spying on us?"
"Because she... Well..." I shifted my mind back to the female. "Were you spying on us?" her eyes widened.
"Whose us?" I shut my eyes.
"You're not very good at this interrogation thing are you Toothless?"
"Hiccup will you PLEASE stop talking in my ear while I'm talking to this strange dragon?"
The female piped up again. "You're calling me strange? I'm not the one talking to myself." I then realized that I had let my control slip. Our conversation had been loud and broadcasted.
"Look, how about we all calm down.."
"You're the only one who's not calm bud."
I sucked in as big a breath as I could and let it back out. "Ok, I'm calm, now, what were you doing so close to us? It's not the mating season, and our species is solitary for the entire year otherwise."
"How about this? I'll tell you a few things about myself, if you let me up, and tell me who 'us' is."
I considered for a moment, before coming to a decision. "Fine. But one false move and I'll have you staring at your own lungs."
"Hey Toothless, I know the whole protection instincts are a little strong but, isn't that threat a little unnecessary?"
"I just don't want trouble." And with that, I leapt backwards, leaving the female to scramble to her feet, and I retreated to sit beside the boulder on which Hiccup perched in a three legged crouch.
XXX
Unknown
I was on my feet in moments, the indignity of my restraint forgotten, as I stared at the strange sight before me. The male sat there, wings folded, next to a large stone that was flat and set low in the ground. On this stone was perched, of all things, a human. Not only that, but this human had the male Shade's tail wrapped securely about its middle, and it had a huge smile on its face. I could not believe my eyes. Humans in the north didn't smile if any of my kind were anywhere near them. They ran in terror. But then, they also were always garbed in the skins of other creatures. This human was utterly devoid of an extra skin. It was obviously male. His skin also seemed to be changing somehow. I could see the glint and shimmer of glossy black scales. The scale of a Shade. A straight line of the scales ran from the creature's right shoulder, down across the side of its torso, while a line of separated scales ran from the other side of his neck, down, over his chest and stopped at his left shoulder. That mark made a twinge at the back of my mind, it seemed like it should be significant.
Also, his left eye was highlighted by a line of scale that ran out from under his fur and down past the eye tapering off midway down his face. That discoloration caught my attention, because I could see an almost identical scar, marring the face of the strange male Shade. The Shade spoke.
"This is the other part of 'us'." He looked down at the human, his eyes softening as he did. At the same time, the human turned his head, and looked up at the Shade, his smile widening even further. It was only upon seeing this silent exchange, that I realized why the mark on the human's shoulder was nagging at me. It was identical, to the mating scars that I had seen on the paired females in the North! This Shade must be mad after all. He had claimed a human. He even went so far as to pretend that it could talk to him by making up a separate voice for it within his own head. "Alright then. I let you up, and I introduced you to my Hiccup. Now, who are you, and what are you doing so close to us in an off season?"
As he was speaking, I allowed myself to analyze his body to assess the threat he presented. The sight before me brought me up short. There was.. something stuck to him. Lines ran across his chest and around his stomach. I could not figure out their purpose. Judging by the scars and the strange thing he wore, I think that he must have taken some kind of abuse, and lost his mind in the process. I looked up to see that he was expecting an answer.
I drew a deep breath. This insane creature would be of no benefit to the Home Cave, I would simply act quickly and escape.
"My name is Ryshkaa. Why I am near you is of no concern to you. Just be glad that you're alive. Hopefully, we'll never cross each other's paths again." With that, I opened my wings and launched myself into the sky.
XXX
Hiccup
The female starred at us for a few minutes. Actually she seemed to mostly be starring at Toothless. Then she simply said that her name was Ryshkaa, and that her reasons for being here were of no concern to us. Before either of us could say anything, she had taken wing, straight up to the sky. Toothless let out an angry snarl and I leapt sideways. I felt my foot slip into the stirrup and we jumped into the sky after her.
Toothless was beating his wings faster than he ever had in the past in an effort to catch up with her. Her name reverberated through our mind. Ryshkaa.. ryshkaa.. RYSHKAA! I caught an image of a tiny Night Fury rolling around in the snow. The female called Ryshkaa, leveled out above us and I kept my eyes on her as we climbed. After straightening her course to the north, I saw her reach downward with one of her claws. The same blue light that I had seen in the nest lit its tip. But now, she brought it up to her own body. She made a curling gesture towards her own chest.
"Umm, Toothless?" But he ignored me. He was too focused on catching up with the female. As I watched, glowing blue lines spiraled and swirled crazily around her legs and across her belly, creating strange patterns and images. The lines were especially think on her wings as the continued to extend and curl. "Toothless?" But he still took no heed. We were now at the same height, chasing directly behind the female. As I watched the blue lines stretch across her tailfins, Toothless made one last extreme push with his wings, and he clamped down on the tail with his teeth extended.
As Ryshkaa screeched in surprise and pain, I saw the lines flare brighter and brighter, until they were white. Then, the world distorted around me. Each line and image blurred into a long, contorted image to itself, and the last thing I saw of the world, was the sun hanging directly over the head, before that two blurred and disappeared behind us.
